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Life and Stories of Pārçvanatha
Story of Prince Bhima and his friend Matisagara
In Kamalapura ruled king Harivahana. His queen, Mālati, dreamed that she had a lion in her lap.3. The king called in a Brahman skilled in the Science of Dreams, which he explained in a brief Traumschlüssel' (67). Next, he interpreted the particular dream of the queen: she would be delivered of a noble son. In due time a prince was born, and named Bhima. Simultaneously the king's minister, Buddhila, had a son, Matisagara, who became Bhima's friend and adviser. One day, while the prince was sitting in the lap of his father, the gardener of the Campaka park announced the arrival of the Sage Abhinanda. Greatly rejoiced, the king, the prince, and the court went there to greet him, and hear his sermon. Bhima and his friend Matisāgara were converted, and enjoined especially not to injure innocuous living things. This the Sage illustrated by the following parable (52-106):
Parable of the six men who started to destroy a hostile village
The first of the six men proposes to kill both men and beasts; the second advises that the human beings be killed, but why the beasts? The third says, the men alone must be killed, not the women; the fourth narrows it down still further by proposing that only men in arms are to be slain; and the fifth proposes that even of those in arms only they that actually fight should be slain.
* See additional note 19, on p. 189.
This relation between prince and minister's son, or prince and other youthful friend, is constant and fundamental in fiction; e. g. Kathās. 28. 115; Jacobi, Ausgewählte Erzählungen, p. 5, 1. 18.
